Man says car hit by flying airplane part

UPI News Service, 12/07/2010

A California man says an egg-shaped object that broke the windshield of his Honda appears to be a part from a passing plane.

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David Sawyers, 25, says the object could not have been dropped from a bridge and was too big to have been set into motion by a car or truck, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. He said he plans to report the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"I don't think it is right for airplane parts to fly out of the sky and damage people's vehicles," he said.

Sawyers of Santee and a friend, Claire Maloney, were on State Route 163 in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood Saturday afternoon when the object hit the car. Sawyers described it as "egg-shaped but bigger than a softball."

Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA regional office, said objects do fall from planes with reports occurring once or twice a year.

San Diego officials were dubious about Sawyers' story, although Mike Tussey, the city's deputy director of aviation, conceded it is "not beyond the realm of possibility," the newspaper reported.